This week's biggest announcement is the release of Dark Voice 28. Since Keldorn had disappeared on me, I decided to do it all myself. It's not graphically fantastic, but it has all of the pieces there. I've decided that, rather than create some overly complex PHP system for the Dark Voice, I will now publish it every month, thus ensuring that it does get out on timely fashion. The DV as you see it now will not change too much, save that I will create a graphical design for it and a definitive color scheme and the like. It will incorporate PHP in the form of style variables that I will create and that will be that. So, Keldorn is no longer the Webmaster for the Dark Voice. His service is appreciated, however.

I am currently working on a internal Multiplayer competition medal, tentatively called the Black Tear. I will be sending the details on it to the SHW, OHC and the GM later this weekend, and if all goes well, we'll see it either approved or denied by next week. Speaking of multiplayer, there has also been discussions of DB-only competitions through the Combat Operations Office. As COO Khadgar is still on leave, nothing is set in stone as of yet, but I'll keep everyone posted on news as it develops.

For Dark Voice 29, while I will be publishing it, I want all submissions to be sent only to my Assistant, Korbane. This is to test his ability at handling the administrative side of the Dark Voice, so he will judge submissions and determine the Dark Cross winners, as well as the Image of the Month. If he does this all in the way I like, he will be elevated to Praetor of my office. His e-mail is [Log in to view e-mail addresses] and I will release Dark Voice 29 on August 12, which is a little more than two weeks away. This is to make up for the excessive amount of time DV 28 took to publish, so I expect this to be a smaller issue than the others I have done.

Updates to the Medal Guide are forthcoming, expect them up in a week or so. Speaking of which, there was a discussion on the message boards earlier this week on changes to the Crescent system. I say this bluntly: there will be no change to the Crescent system. I will not make some "Order-specific" Crescents because that does not address the "issue": getting high-level Crescents for something one perceives as easy, and earning a low-level Crescent for something one perceives as hard. What is hard and what is easy is a personal judgement, and as I stated on the message board, I cannot create a medal based on personal criterion. The Crescent was created as a competition medal, and the higher the competition level, the higher the reward. I apologize if people do not like this system, but there exist no real, viable alternatives.

Finally, congratulations to all the medal recipients this week, especially Quaestor Darkmage with his new Sapphire Blade for his exceptional work with House Caliburnus.

<table> <tr> <td></td> <td valign="top"><font face="Verdana" color="#9400D3">Shadow Adept/Epis Pharaun "Shadonyx" Illistyn

  Chancellor of the Dark Brotherhood  

  Editor-in-Chief of the Dark Voice</font>  

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